Educational Science

Do Not Fear the Sailor 'Jellyfish' Invasion

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Billions of small, jellyfish-like creatures known as “by-the-wind sailors” have washed ashore all along the west coast of North America this summer, from southern California to British Columbia. Images...

In Photos: Moon Jellyfish Can Rearrange Limbs

Delicate saucer-shaped blobs that pulsate their way through the seas, moon jellyfish have a clever trick up their sleeves, as scientists have found the jellies can self-repair after losing a limb or two. But rather than growing back the injured or amputated arm, moon jellyfish just rearrange their other limbs...

Bored with all the vertebrates in your wildlife-cam media diet? The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California is now streaming mesmerizing live footage of its jellyfish. Specifically, the aquarium is showing off Pacific sea nettles, or Chrysaora fuscescens, a species that drifts through the eastern Pacific from Mexico to Canada. You...

Actress Anne Curtis Stung By Box Jellyfish

Actress Anne Curtis was stung by a deadly box jellyfish while shooting a TV show in the Philippines Wednesday night (April 2). Curtis was being treated at St. Luke's Medical Center in Bonifacio Global City, where doctors were keeping an eye on her rash and heartbeat, the actress tweeted, according...

Billions of Blue Jellyfish Setting Sail for Beaches

Expect another bountiful crop of blue jellies this year along West Coast beaches. Billions of by-the-wind sailors, also called Velella velella, could wash ashore in coming months because of favorable water temperatures and onshore winds, scientists say. People have already spotted thousands of the baseball-size creatures at beaches from Washington...

Mix-n-Match Arms: Jellyfish Rearrange Limbs After Injury

Common moon jellies have an uncommon fix for injuries: When they lose limbs, they don't regrow them. Instead, they rearrange their entire bodies to stay symmetrical despite the loss. This symmetrization is a never-before-seen method of self-repair, and one that probably helps jellies stay alive in the wild. Jellyfish are...

Secret Lives of Flower Hat Jellyfish Revealed

For decades, flower hat jellyfish managed to keep their early lives a secret. In adulthood, the jellyfish are striking, with a nest of fluorescent tentacles that look like party streamers, but pack a nasty sting. In infancy, well, scientists didn't know. Aquarists tried, unsuccessfully, to raise the animals in tanks...

Tiny 'Jellyfish' Team Up for Multi-Jetpack Swimming

A jellyfishlike creature that swims using an array of jetpacks could transform the way engineers design underwater exploration vehicles, suggests a recent study. Meet Nanomia bijuga, a relative of jellies, anemones and corals. This siphonophore navigates the ocean in colonies measuring about 12 inches (30 centimeters) long. Most of that...

Lowly Jellyfish Uses High-Tech Strategy to Find Food

The barrel jellyfish, isn't just the largest jelly found in the waters around the United Kingdom, it's also one of the animal kingdom's most strategic searchers, according to a new study. To locate the best possible meal in the vast waters of its marine habitat, the barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus)...

Jellyfish Hunt Hurts Pacific Leatherback Turtles

When it comes to leatherback turtles, the world's largest species of sea turtle, there's a conundrum: The species itself is critically endangered, but at least one leatherback population is stable — on the rise, even — while others plummet. Now, researchers may have discovered why some of these turtles are...